The Darryl "Nice Tan" Glenn Speech You Missed at the Donald Trump Convention

Colorado got plenty of pub during day one of the Republican National Convention yesterday in Cleveland, thanks to the decision by delegates from the state to briefly walk out after the powers-that-be smothered the last dying embers of the Never Trump movement in Quicken Loans Arena, where the shindig is taking place.

The most prominent Coloradan on the official program — Darryl Glenn, the El Paso County Commissioner running against Michael Bennet for the U.S. Senate seat — received a lot less attention, even though he referred to himself as having a "nice tan."

Glenn was scheduled to speak at 7:41 p.m. Mountain Time, just shy of twenty minutes before major networks ABC, CBS and NBC began their coverage. As such, the main TV venues during his time on stage were cable-news nets Fox News, MSNBC and CNN — but none of them actually broadcast his remarks. Instead, he could be seen (but not really heard) in the background of shots as pundits and personalities such as Megyn Kelly, Brian Williams, Rachel Maddow and Wolf Blitzer kibitzed.

In the hall itself, however, Glenn was a smash.

As seen in the video of his appearance, on view below, Glenn didn't shrink from the moment. After walking to the podium, pointing skyward and saying, "Give God the glory," he greeted the crowd with a "Good evening" — and when its members didn't respond with enough enthusiasm for his liking, he tried again: "I said, 'Good evening.'"

That prompted a whoop, as did his by-now-familiar introduction: "My name is Darryl Glenn, and I'm an unapologetic Christian-Constitutional-conservative, pro-life, Second Amendment-loving veteran."

After announcing that he was running for Senate in the "number-one battleground state...Colorado" without naming Bennet, he said, "It is my privilege to stand here and support our next president, Donald Trump."

In the remarks that followed, Glenn tweaked the official transcript of his remarks with moments of spontaneity.

"I'm often asked, 'Why are you a Republican?'" he noted. "Well, it's because the Democrat party is the party of handouts, and after over seven and a half years, the only thing we have left in our pockets is change."

Cue laughter.

Next, Glenn rolled into a section about race, referring to President Barack Obama as the "divider-in-chief," arguing that "we're more racially divided today than before he ran," and asking, "Did you see the new Black Panthers outside? Where's Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton? They don't speak for black America, and they don't speak for me.

"Mr. President, I have a message. This is not about black America, white America or brown America. This is about the United States of America."

The throng responded by launching a "U.S.A.! U.S.A.!" chant as camera operators searched desperately for African-American faces in a room dominated by Caucasians — and they found some.

In between these cutaways, Glenn shared his most provocative off-script comment: "You know, quite frankly, somebody with a nice tan needs to say this: All lives matter."

The delegates loved that one, and they were just as thrilled by Glenn's remarks about police in the wake of officer assassinations in Dallas and Baton Rouge.

"You must realize that our heroes in blue are part of the solution and not the problem," he maintained, before ad-libbing, "Stand up and support those men and women in Dallas! Stand up and support those law enforcement in Louisiana! Make sure that you hear them! This is your opportunity! Blue lives matter!"

Plenty of folks stood as directed amid more cries of "U.S.A.! U.S.A.!"

From there, Glenn made more comments calculated to endear himself to the mainly white assemblage, including, "If we really want to heal our communities, more men need to start stepping up and taking care of their children" and "Safe neighborhoods happen when fathers and mothers are in the home." He also referenced the threat of "radical Islamic terrorism," said America should send Hillary Clinton an e-mail to "tell her she deserves a bright-orange jump suit," declared that "American exceptionalism is alive and well" and "evil exists," and exhorted those congregated before him to "believe we can win...believe we can change things...believe that together, we can make America great again."

Whether this material will work as well in purple Colorado as it did in a bright-red arena in Cleveland remains to be seen — but given Glenn's obvious gifts as a charismatic speaker, the Bennet campaign would be foolish to underestimate his potential.

Here's Glenn's RNC speech in its entirety.

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Michael Roberts has written for Westword since October 1990, serving stints as music editor and media columnist. He currently covers everything from breaking news and politics to sports and stories that defy categorization.